


Tikkun Olam

by gladdecease



Series: Mishpocha [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Gen, Jewish Greg Universe, Post-Episode s05e29-32 Change Your Mind, Superhero Comic Books
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-16 16:17:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18097805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: Whoever thought healing the world could be so literal?





	Tikkun Olam

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spoke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoke/gifts).



> _Tikkun olam_ : Hebrew, literally meaning repair of the world. A Jewish philosophy of personal responsibility for improving societal welfare, in addition to one's own.

Greg sat at the edge of Rose’s fountain - well, it was more of a pool at this point, wasn’t it? Whatever you wanted to call it, he sat at the edge and watched gem bubbles pop one after another, one after another being restored, and didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or cry.

Then Amethyst swam a leisurely backstroke past him, spraying a steady stream of... a substance Greg was going to pretend was water… into the air like some kind of cartoon whale, and without thinking Greg chose laughter. The stream faltered and stopped altogether as Amethyst cracked a wide smile and swam over to the edge to join Greg.

“’Sup, Greggo?”

“Just thinking,” he said, watching another gem reform and get tackled by ecstatic friends. “This is everything Rose ever wanted, but… I don’t think she could have made it happen.”

Amethyst hefted herself out of the pool and plopped down at Greg’s side, dripping not-water all over him. “Yeah, probably not.” When Greg gave her a surprised look, she smiled a little sadly at him. “I get the feeling she was holding a pretty big grudge against the other Diamonds. And I can’t blame her for that; _I’m_ still holding a bit of a grudge, and they never did much of anything to me.” She splashed her feet in the pool thoughtfully. “Sisters, I guess.”

Greg glanced over to the corner farthest from Rose’s statue, where Amethyst’s own wayward sister had taken up residence. “How’s that going?”

“Eh,” Amethyst shrugged. “It’s going.” She gave Greg a sideways look. “So what else is it?”

“Hm?”

“If it was just Rose, you’d be way sadder looking. There’s gotta be something else.”

Greg snorted. Perceptive little… “You used to steal my comic books, right?”

“You can’t prove that,” Amethyst said a little too quickly.

“You remember the Super-Guy ones?”

“Ugh, _Super-Guy_. Gimme ten Spiderguys over a Super-Guy any day.” Amethyst made a couple web-slinging hand motions. “ _With a lot of strength comes a lot of duties_ ,” she said, putting on a booming voice before bursting into giggles.

Greg chuckled, because, well. _Duties_. “Yeah, Spiderguy is my favorite too.”

“Then why bring up Super-Guy?” Amethyst hummed thoughtfully. “I _guess_ if Steven grew, like, two or three feet, and twisted one of his curls into a lock, he’d _kinda_ look like Super-Guy.” She turned on Greg. “But that’d make you a Hollywood farmer type, or the guy who got blown up in that big space explosion or whatever. Pass.”

Greg laughed. “No, nothing like that! I was just thinking. My granddad had a bunch of the old Super-Guy comics, the ones written by the guys who first created him. There wasn’t so much with the aliens then, or the super-team infighting - and don’t get me started on the stuff that happened in the nineties, _eugh_.” Greg shook himself and got back on topic. “Back then, he wasn’t all about stopping bad guys. Instead he was helping the good guys. Preventing accidents, rescuing people from burning buildings, stuff like that.”

“Sounds boring,” Amethyst said.

“Oh yeah, I couldn’t stand them. What’s the point of superheroes if they aren’t punching supervillains?” Greg smiled. “But then Zayde explained that Super-Guy was made by guys like us.”

Amethyst looked Greg up and down. “Bald?”

He snorted. “You _know_ I used to have more hair than this, Amethyst.” Leaning back on his hands, Greg said, “There's this thing… aw geez, I don’t remember what it’s called.”

“Whaaat? _Greg Universe_ , _forgetting_ something? _No way_.”

Not strong enough to push her into the pool, Greg contented himself by splashing her. Any retaliation he received was well deserved and an acceptable loss. “Whatever, the name doesn’t matter. The thing works like this: this world of ours, it’s not perfect. And to help it get better, it’s not enough to stop evil. You also have to do good.”

“Huh. I like that.” Amethyst wrung out her hair, giving Greg a considering look. “This thing is part of that stuff Steven keeps talking to Andy about, right? Goodie-ism?”

“Judaism. And yeah, it is.”

“You never talked about it before he showed up.”

“Well... no, I guess not.” Greg rubbed the back of his neck, flashing back to a run-in he'd had with his old rebbe a few months ago. Steven had been thrilled; Greg had felt oddly ashamed, like he'd failed a test not by doing poorly on it, but by forgetting to show up. “I don't exactly _practice_ , you know?” Amethyst stared at him blankly. “What I mean is... it's how I was brought up, but it's not how I live.”

“Oh, like Garnet and Pearl with Homeworld stuff?”

Greg grimaced. Best not to compare youthful religious apathy to a literal revolution against a caste-based dictatorship. “Not really. But even if I _did_ still practice, why bring it up with Gems? You're aliens, what would you care about some ancient human belief system?”

Amethyst shrugged. “I dunno, that do-good stuff sounds pretty nice to me. Like, I don't know if hearing about it would've convinced Rose to talk to her sisters or anything, but that's pretty much how Steven did all _this_ , right?”

Greg looked out across the pool, in the direction Amethyst had expressively waved a hand. Another gem had just reformed, properly herself for the first time in thousands of years. She stared at her reflection, then at the old friends surrounding her, laughing and crying with joy.

Greg smiled. “You know, it's funny, I was just thinking the same thing.”

**Author's Note:**

> 


End file.
